XmisterIS
Purveyor of fine nonsense
While not strictly commuting, I nevertheless was out and about on my bike today, largin' it like a rude boy.
Anyway, I digress. I went shopping, then went to see the Mother. It's a completely (sub)urban route and whenever I ride around the city or the suburbs, close passes are the norm and if they're too close, I can get wound up about it!
Today, however, I readied myself. I adopted the lotus position and meditated until I was flying in a truly yogic fashion and making excellent headway down the Eightfold Path of Enlightenment. The big B himself would have been proud.
I set off still glowing with zen-like clarity of mind, indeed the bicycle floated two inches above the tarmac for at least the first mile. Throughout the whole journey, I was expecting to be cut up and close passed and so when it happened, it came as no surprise! I even had a chav in his chavmobile revving his engine behind me, trying to pass at a pinchpoint, then lost all the time he was trying to gain, by pulling alongside me and shouting at me, "Oi you knob, get off the f***ing road!". Naturally, I had done nothing to provoke him. In ordinary circumstances, my blood would have boiled, I would have seen red, horns would have grown out of my head, steam would have come out of my nostrils and that's when I would have gotten good and mad ... and an altercation would have ensued. Today, however, I just ignored him and he got bored and drove off after a couple of seconds!
The result? I arrived at all my destinations feeling more relaxed than a Jamaican in a field of cannabis! Too cool for school. Mentally horizontal. Blissed.
Seriously though, I didn't adopt the lotus position, but I did just stop for a minute or two (and I do mean between one an two minutes, which is a lot of thinking time) and I did think before I got on the bike. I told myself, "they are going to drive round you like you're not there, so expect it, keep calm and rise above their level of mindlessness and/or unawareness". Seems to have done the trick!
I wish I could take that attitude every time I got on the bike! The motons will still cut me up but by not reacting to provocation ... they just go away! Fantastic!
Anyway, I digress. I went shopping, then went to see the Mother. It's a completely (sub)urban route and whenever I ride around the city or the suburbs, close passes are the norm and if they're too close, I can get wound up about it!
Today, however, I readied myself. I adopted the lotus position and meditated until I was flying in a truly yogic fashion and making excellent headway down the Eightfold Path of Enlightenment. The big B himself would have been proud.
I set off still glowing with zen-like clarity of mind, indeed the bicycle floated two inches above the tarmac for at least the first mile. Throughout the whole journey, I was expecting to be cut up and close passed and so when it happened, it came as no surprise! I even had a chav in his chavmobile revving his engine behind me, trying to pass at a pinchpoint, then lost all the time he was trying to gain, by pulling alongside me and shouting at me, "Oi you knob, get off the f***ing road!". Naturally, I had done nothing to provoke him. In ordinary circumstances, my blood would have boiled, I would have seen red, horns would have grown out of my head, steam would have come out of my nostrils and that's when I would have gotten good and mad ... and an altercation would have ensued. Today, however, I just ignored him and he got bored and drove off after a couple of seconds!
The result? I arrived at all my destinations feeling more relaxed than a Jamaican in a field of cannabis! Too cool for school. Mentally horizontal. Blissed.
Seriously though, I didn't adopt the lotus position, but I did just stop for a minute or two (and I do mean between one an two minutes, which is a lot of thinking time) and I did think before I got on the bike. I told myself, "they are going to drive round you like you're not there, so expect it, keep calm and rise above their level of mindlessness and/or unawareness". Seems to have done the trick!
I wish I could take that attitude every time I got on the bike! The motons will still cut me up but by not reacting to provocation ... they just go away! Fantastic!
